Search form

You are here

The Denial In The Bible

Peter
said to Jesus "Though all men shall be offended
because of thee, yet will I never be offended." (Matthew 26:33)

Jesus
said to Peter, "...thou shalt DENY me thrice."
(Luke 22:61)

As Bible believing Christians, we categorically reject the art
(as opposed to science) of Psychology- and its
various subsets, Psychiatry, the Dialectic, Philosophies of Men, and
other man-engineered intellectual strongholds inspired by the Devil.
However, the Scriptures plainly teach us there are behavioral
processes that appear to be recognizable patterns that can be
quantified.

For example, Titus tells us "...unto them that are defiled
and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is
defiled. They profess that they know God, but in works they deny
him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work
reprobate." (Titus 1:15,16)

Ezekiel tells of believersthat have placed "thestumbling block of their iniquity before their face."
(Ezekiel 14:3). That "stumbling block" is an invisible stronghold
spoken of in II Corinthians where the believer is instructed to cast
"...down imaginations, and every high thing that
exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into
captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." (II Corinthians
10:5).

For lack of a better term, we will use the term Denial.
This is a devilish stronghold that must be "cast down." It is used
by the human mind (the portion that is commonly called the ego) to
protect itself from threatening knowledge or awareness of
truth by blocking the information from the mind's awareness. Denialis used by Christians to excuse and justify un-Christian
behavior, sin and false doctrine.

The denial mechanism is automatic and operates below the
level of awareness. An individual is not only unaware of the
information or knowledge that they are denying, they are commonly
unaware that they are engaging in denial. Denial impairs judgment and
results in a state of delusion and an increasingly destructive pattern
of living.

Denial is progressive, because the affected individual
sets up increasingly elaborate denial mechanisms that pervade the
entire personality and become so enmeshed in the ego's dream world
that they are extremely difficult to penetrate.

There appear to be seven denial mechanisms that can be identified in
the light of Scripture:

Simple
denial - maintaining that something is not so which is indeed
a fact and obvious to rational people.

Minimizing
- admitting superficially to the problem but not admitting that
it is serious in scope.

Rationalizing
- offering an excuse or justification for behavior. The
behavior is not denied but an acceptable, even comfortable,
explanation of its cause is given.

Intellectualizing
(the Biblical "imaginations") -
avoiding emotional and
personal awareness of a problem by dealing with it on a level of
generalization, intellectual analyses, or theorizing.

Diversion
- changing the subject to avoid discussion of the topic that is
threatening.

Hostility
- becoming angry or irritable when reference is made to the
problem causing conflict.

Just as Peter denied knowing Jesus Christ
for fear of his own earthly life, Christians today deny THE
TRUTH in order to protect their mind's dream world and its
pleasures. For example, a majority of Christians believe that they
will be raptured and not experience the tribulation of the end times.
Exposing these "rapture cult" members to the Biblical proof
that true Christians will suffer tribulation seems to frequently
trigger this theological denial process.

The truth that the Ten Commandments are God's law, and are
meant to be followed by all generations is another tough truth for
many Christians to accept. It is easier to deny this
truth, by simply declaring that "we are under grace," than it is
to conform individual behavior to that which God has mandated.

The truth that abortion is a sin is easily denied by
referring to "the clump of tissue," and siding with the U.S.
Supreme Court's higher "denial" in this matter.

All Christians should immediately quit their collective denial of the
imminent tribulation, give up on the non-scriptural make-believe "rapture"
lie, and begin preparation. Most will not.

The Holy Scriptures refer to Satan as the "father of lies," and
tells us that all liars are antichrist (I John 2:22). It
would seem that denial is a subtle way of perpetrating a
lie -
transforming the dissimulating "believer" into an "antichrist."
All Christians should seek THE TRUTH in all matters, no matter
how painful seeing and understanding that truth is.

As a true disciple of Jesus Christ, you must kneel before God, and ask
to see the TRUTH, for "Ye shall know the TRUTH, and
the TRUTH shall make you free" (John 8:32)